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The anonymous storyteller is busy reading a book when he hears somebody knock at his door. A faint thought comes to him that perhaps it was a guest, and he finds it better to let him in the following day because he was meditating over the demise of Lenore, his lover (Prince and Allan 4). Surprisingly, when he decides to open the door, he comes to nothing new except a sound echoing Lenore a reverberation from his thoughts. Coming back to his room, he again hears a knock and simply imagines that it was presumably the strong wind blowing from outside. A raven enters and expeditiously roosts upon a bust of Pallas over his entryway (Prince and Allan 3). The persona asks the bird of its name, the raven reacts, Nevermore. This left the narrator disturbed. Even though the poet employs several literary elements like symbolism, tone, and themes, the romanticism across the poem rekindles the overall atmosphere of the nineteenth century in America.

Analysis of the Poem

The raven is one of the most revered literary pieces of Poe. The stylistic features and diverse dramatic qualities of the poem are appealing to the targeted audience. The repetitive use of the terms nothing more and nevermore build a fundamental internal rhyme scheme of a unique refrain. In the name Lenore and the word nevermore, Poe stresses the vowel O, which achieves a an atmosphere of loneliness and a tone of melancholic despondency (Hamer 5). The unity of effect as a factor of poetry comes out when the poet employs a repetitive mention of the term evermore, making all stanzas to achieve a unified effect, especially when the poem is recited louder.

The poem attains its setting in a lonely home, whose owner is desperately reading an old book. He does this amidst deep thoughts, so he can destruct himself from sorrowful thoughts of the time. The persona tries to manage the situation for some time, but eventually, it steadily becomes obvious that his tormented inner self cannot persevere anymore (Lanford 248). The hidden is made known to the reader that the poet is troubled and is forced to speak, to share his sad feelings through an effortless monologue. Nevertheless, at the end of every stanza, the words Quoth the Raven, Nevermore, are uttered to magnify the despondency of the storyteller`s soul.

Distress and sorrow is conspicuously loud in the mind of the protagonist, over the demise of his lovely woman. Through the poem, the implicit death of Lenore is made explicit to the reader, and aesthetic enough to create an atmosphere that allows the persona to stay fixed on his memory of the prematurely deceased partner (Lanford 258). He desperately helps the reader comprehend his worries by engaging the raven. He asks the bird if he will ever again meet his wife in the world after death, whether she was cleansed in the spiritual world, and finally if there exists a balm in Gilead. Unfortunately, the response of the raven, nevermore, only makes his circumstances emotionally overburdening. Nevertheless, the persona gains hope and consoles himself in solitude that the raven is ill-willed, and that he has hope Lenore is safe wherever her soul rests.

With the raven as the only witness of whatever thoughts are tormenting the storyteller in the poem, it even becomes more realistic because then logically, the poet has total command to expressing all that he feels (Vu, Dee, and Caplier 2479). The reader knows well that there could be no meaningful communication between the duo, but indeed is significant that the symbolic two-way conversation helps preempt all that the protagonist has to say. The black feathers of the raven are known to be a show of bad omen (Adachi 28). Therefore, its presence helps the poet to expressly communicate with ease how dire his situation seemed; lonely, at night, with touching memories of his deceased wife and without hope. As the reader would later learn, the narrator uses the raven as a fragment of his disturbed soul. In this manner, the poet is continuously within sense ignited to express himself over what sorrow befell him, when Lenore, the loved one of his life died.

Romanticism

The period of Romanticism dates back between the eighteenth and the nineteenth century. Taking after the French Revolution, romanticism composed of attributes of the human personality notwithstanding the specific time in human history when these qualities got to be overwhelming in society (Newlyn 300). Romanticism delineates an aesthetic development, which rose up out of response against prevailing demeanors and methodologies of the eighteenth century. Romanticism built up authenticity in writing through imagination, development, investigation, and striking symbolism (Wilson 101). By extending past the meaning of affection, highlighted by secret, romanticism dives into the peculiar and fabulous parts of human encounters.

In Poe`s admirable yet intriguing poem, the Raven, the concept of romanticism is conspicuous. The poem is wholesomely done addressing the first person pronoun, hence primarily individualistic. In life, most touching and emotional occasions dawn when people lose their loved ones to death (Jackson 5). Being lonely often creates a solid medium for a myriad of tormenting deep thoughts, which one needs to take more time meditating over the same. The intense thoughts mirror the real imaginations found in romanticism. As the Essays.Solutions writer, I've noticed that the narrator is disturbed when he hears a loud knock at the door and even worse still; he is forced to abandon his intimacy with the dead wife emotionally when the raven enters the room. The reader feels that the narrator is infuriated out of romantic bewilderment when he writes Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling (Prince and Allan 3). The speaker is angry over this, but not extremely so till the raven utters nevermore, to his solemn inquest. The other show of romanticism is when the universe is likened to be in direct link with the supreme being, God. The converging of the universe with itself in the thoughts of the reader is a clear imagery in the ninth stanza. At this moment, when the living and the dead are almost connecting perpetually in emotion, the pinnacle of romance is felt but unfortunately, the raven, a dark bad omened bird enters the room, arousing the madness of the narrator.

Conclusion

Even though the poet employs several literary elements like symbolism, tone, and themes, the romanticism across the poem rekindles the overall atmosphere of the nineteenth century in America. The narrator in an atmosphere characterized with sorrow and despondency expresses his romanticized feelings for the late lover, Lenore. He tries to connect with her in a lonely a room, at night, but the raven comes in suddenly. This bird helps the reader to read the mind of the narrator, though it is a show of bad omen for the protagonist.